Mars One is looking for would-be colonists for a one-way journey to Mars in 2023.

One of the biggest challenges facking any mission to Mars is the return trip. Getting there isn't really a big deal as these things go, but getting home is a different story. The obvious solution is also the one that almost nobody is willing to even consider: a one-way voyage. Send people off to get the party started, and leave them there.

The Netherlands-based Mars One is willing to consider it, however, and not just that. The not-for-profit organization is now accepting applications from wanna-be astronauts willing to make the journey, and because of the nature of the mission it's not necessarily looking for the typical lantern-jawed, best-of-the-best, "Right Stuff" kind of guys; instead, it's after people who are creative, highly adaptable and, most important of all, unlikely to kill each other after months and years cooped up together in a tiny space.

"A grounded, deep sense of purpose will help each astronaut maintain his or her psychological stability and focus as they work together toward a shared and better future," the Mars One site states. "Mars One cannot stress enough the importance of an applicant's capacity for self-reflection. Without this essential foundation, the five key characteristics listed below cannot be utilized to the fullest potential."

Those five "key characteristics" are resiliency, adaptability, curiosity, creativity/resourcefulness and the ability to trust. Applicants must also be 18 years of age or older, in good physical and mental health - disease-free, good eyesight, no drug dependencies, that sort of thing - and stand between 5'1" and 6'2". Applications may be made in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Russian, Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Korean, Indonesian or Japanese, but the official mission language will be English, which successful candidates will be expected to learn as their training progresses.

The first launch team, currently planned to go in September 2022, will comprise only four members in order to keep the cost and complexity of the mission at a manageable level. Multiple four-person groups will be trained, however, and given the long term, close quarters and intensity of the mission training, if even just one member of the team decides to leave the program at any time, the whole team will be removed from rotation, with remaining members given the option of restarting the training from the very beginning with a new member. The first colonist group will be joined by new teams every two years.

As ridiculous and crazy as it sounds, there's a certain look of legitimacy to the Mars One website and its program doesn't come across as entirely insane. The mission plan is vague but detailed enough to sound convincing, and the decision to use a SpaceX Falcon Heavy for the trip, a modified version of the Falcon 9 rocket that's already successfully put the Dragon spacecraft into orbit, makes sense; SpaceX plans to begin test flights of the Falcon Heavy this year and has provided Mars One with a letter of interest. I don't want to say that this thing might actually work, but I'm starting to think that this thing might actually work.

38 USD to apply? I dunno man. Seems a little 'scam-ish' for the "Interplanetary Media Group" a company which would traditionally rely on investors to need me to pay a fee to have my application thrown through the sifter...

"stuffing people into a small space for an extended period of time on another planet... You'll love it!"-Mars One, Subsidiary of Vault Tec, who in no way has a secret experiment in mind

Man, you'll be spending at least 10-15 years up there before you can get a vehicle to give you a return trip, and mars isn't all that super-fun on the surface.

I loved that, but its a bit worse that you think.

Emigration - The Mars One astronauts will depart Earth assuming that they will never return. This radically changes the mission requirements, reducing the need for return vehicles associated with currently unavailable technologies and far greater costs.

Furthermore, there is a point in time after which the human body will have adjusted to the 38% gravitation field of Mars, and be incapable of returning to the Earth's much stronger gravity. This is due to the total physiological change in the human body, which includes reduction in bone density, muscle strength, and circulatory system capacity. While a cosmonaut on-board the Mir was able to walk upon return to Earth after thirteen months in a weightless environment, after a prolonged stay on Mars, the human body will not be able to adjust to the higher gravity of Earth upon return.

By assuming human astronauts are permanent residents on Mars, the challenges are reduced to providing the astronauts with the foundations for a new life: safe living facilities, clean air and potable water, food rations until plants may be grown in green houses and hydroponic facilities, and the essentials for intellectual stimulation on a planet which is cold, desolate, and without many life giving qualities.

If you sign up, there is a chance you wont be coming back to earth at all. Once you are a martian, you stay a martian.

Edit: As for the OT: I already have my application in~ To the mo...er...mars!

"stuffing people into a small space for an extended period of time on another planet... You'll love it!"-Mars One, Subsidiary of Vault Tec, who in no way has a secret experiment in mind

Man, you'll be spending at least 10-15 years up there before you can get a vehicle to give you a return trip, and mars isn't all that super-fun on the surface.

I loved that, but its a bit worse that you think.

Emigration - The Mars One astronauts will depart Earth assuming that they will never return. This radically changes the mission requirements, reducing the need for return vehicles associated with currently unavailable technologies and far greater costs.

Furthermore, there is a point in time after which the human body will have adjusted to the 38% gravitation field of Mars, and be incapable of returning to the Earth's much stronger gravity. This is due to the total physiological change in the human body, which includes reduction in bone density, muscle strength, and circulatory system capacity. While a cosmonaut on-board the Mir was able to walk upon return to Earth after thirteen months in a weightless environment, after a prolonged stay on Mars, the human body will not be able to adjust to the higher gravity of Earth upon return.

By assuming human astronauts are permanent residents on Mars, the challenges are reduced to providing the astronauts with the foundations for a new life: safe living facilities, clean air and potable water, food rations until plants may be grown in green houses and hydroponic facilities, and the essentials for intellectual stimulation on a planet which is cold, desolate, and without many life giving qualities.

If you sign up, there is a chance you wont be coming back to earth at all. Once you are a martian, you stay a martian.

Edit: As for the OT: I already have my application in~ To the mo...er...mars!

Yup, and I can gaurantee you that with few people in a confined space on another planet with nothing to do WILL all be humping like crazy to pass the time.

Yup, and I can gaurantee you that with few people in a confined space on another planet with nothing to do WILL all be humping like crazy to pass the time.

Well someone has to populate the planet in the name of humanity!

Phlakes:Yeah, I'm sure 19 year old armchair philosophers are exactly who you want to man a colonization mission. Not people like scientists, or mechanics, or, I don't know, actual trained astronauts.

Well, you get shoved into 8 years of training with a team before you get shoved into the tincan and launched to mars, so thats enough time that in the outside world you could get a doctorate or a masters and then move onto actual work and gain years of experience....

In their training you get 8 years of specialized training for what you will be doing.

Wait, we're not gonna colonize the Moon? we're just gonna skip it to get for Mars?

Bit of a shame, I'd think colonizing the moon might be easier, it's a shorter distance and with the right science in mind, I'm pretty sure we could make it inhabitable.

On the other hand, there IS still alot less gravity on Mars than on Earth, right?

At least you could jump around to get across long distances, and if you can somehow make that planet inhabitable at least to turtles and you could almost pretend you're in the Mushroom Kingdom's Desert World!

Hey why not? Get 8 years crazy ass training then throw a bitchin' living wake before you depart. Besides who knows what will happen between now and then, maybe we'll have the tech for a return ticket in 10 years. Assuming that the Humartians don't all develop cancer, radiation poisoning and reduced bone mass due to the lack of a magnetic field and living in lower gravity for a prolonged period of time.

Misterian:Wait, we're not gonna colonize the Moon? we're just gonna skip it to get for Mars?

Mars has a thin atmosphere and a little water is present in the soil. One of the proposed methods for living there is to filter the water out of the soil and grow food using hydroponic cells (? I think that's what they called it). Also reuse everything .

The MarsOne website discusses all these challenges in quite a convincing manner if a little vague on the details.

Good luck to them on this. I do military recruiting and it's hard enough to find people who are:

-Physically Fit. -Smart-Are not on medication-don't have significant legal/civil issues or aren't undergoing legal action. -willing to commit to a 4/5 year contract on earth, with the ability to go home on a regular basis.

And I suspect these guys are going to want college degrees or at least high aptitude test scores.

Well, you get shoved into 8 years of training with a team before you get shoved into the tincan and launched to mars, so thats enough time that in the outside world you could get a doctorate or a masters and then move onto actual work and gain years of experience....

In their training you get 8 years of specialized training for what you will be doing.

Which is a lot to get someone to commit to, especially if they have a family or end up starting a family during the training, then start getting second thoughts about wanting to go to mars for a few years.

A lot of people, especially young adults, start to freak out at the idea of committing to anything contractually for a couple years.

Aside from being overweight and having glasses...I don't see a reason why I couldn't go. Aside from also possessing no real skills in how to planet. Or space. Just video game and lift heavy stuff. And drive forklifts. I can forklift! I should be allowed to go!

Phlakes:Yeah, I'm sure 19 year old armchair philosophers are exactly who you want to man a colonization mission. Not people like scientists, or mechanics, or, I don't know, actual trained astronauts.

As far as I can tell the whole thing will be automated, so what they really need the squishy humies for is to sit in the tin cans looking excited for for TV which will in turn pay the bills.Also people seem to skip over the fact this is a one way ticket, you go there to die, and considering what a pie in the sky this whole project is I doubt people will be dying of old age.

Sadly if it succeeds that means the next era in human development was ushered by reality TV...

I fail nearly all of their tests. I'm medicated, have no creativity largely due to a lifetime of mind-altering medication, don't trust anyone, and have piss poor eyesight. guess my non-existent astronaut dream is out the window.

hotdogoctopus:38 USD to apply? I dunno man. Seems a little 'scam-ish' for the "Interplanetary Media Group" a company which would traditionally rely on investors to need me to pay a fee to have my application thrown through the sifter...

They need $3.6 billion dollars to get the project off the ground, I guess that will help greatly. With over half a million applicants, that works out as $29 million (almost 1% of total cost) already raised by that alone. They're going to have to raise that sort of money by hook or by crook.

I figure Virgin space travel will invest (the data gathered from this trip will be vital) plus a load of other crazy entrepreneurs. Maybe they should do a kickstarter, that should net them another $10 mil if they pitch it right!